Anna M. Gordy is a 96-year-old woman in the early stages of Alzheimer''s disease. Although she has suffered some cognitive losses, Mrs. Gordy''s primary problem is that she is not eating sufficiently to maintain her weight or to sustain her life. Based upon a living will that Mrs. Gordy executed in 1990, and also upon her statements over the years and currently, Mrs. Gordy''s son, James Davis, believes that his mother does not wish to be fed through a tube. Accordingly, Mr. Davis petitioned for appointment as her guardian so that he could deny the Bissell Hospital, in which Mrs. Gordy resides, consent to insert a gastric feeding tube into his mother''s abdomen. The attorney general asserted that Mrs. Gordy is not competent to make such a decision and that inserting the feeding tube is in her best interest.
After weighing the conflicting opinions of psychiatrists, the court rules that Mrs. Gordy does not suffer from a "mental incapacity" such that she cannot give or withhold informed consent at this time. Nevertheless, Mr. Davis is appointed as Mrs. Gordy''s guardian because she suffers from "physical incapacities" rendering her unable to manage her affairs. Because the court concludes that Mrs. Gordy is not yet mentally incapable of making her own health care decisions, Mr. Davis is directed to withhold consent for implantation of the feeding tube.
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